[CH] Chile-Sauce...
Doug Irvine (dougandmarie@home.com)
Fri, 10 Sep 1999 08:44:15 -0700
Here is a sure fire :-) chile sauce....Marie's Chile Sauce
12 cups of prepared tomatoes, peeled, cored and chopped (2.5 kg)
2 cups of finely chopped white onion
1 large green bell pepper, chopped fine
1 large red bell pepper, chopped fine
2 jalapenos, stemmed and chopped
2 habs, seeded and chopped
1 1/2 cups white vinegar
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cinnamon stick, broken up
1 bay laurel leaf
1 tbls mustard seed
1 tsp celery seed
1/2 tsp whole cloves
1/2 tsp whole peppercorns
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbls chopped fresh ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Place the cinnamon, bay leaf, mustard seed, celery seed, cloves and
peppercorns, in a cheesecloth bag, and tie as a spice bag, leaving a
long string attached. Combine the tomatoes, onions, green and red bell peppers
chile peppers, vinegar, sugar and salt in a large stainless steel or
enamel pot, then add the garlic, ginger and nutmeg. Put this on high
till it comes to a boil, add the spice bag, and tie the string to the
pot handle and bring the mixture to simmer. Cook gently for a couple of
hours until this is reduced by at least half volume, stir once in awhile
to prevent burning or sticking....taste at this point for seasoning,
bearing in mind that when it is hot it will not taste as it will when
cold, and mellowed. This should not require any more seasoning. This
amount will do about 8 half pint(250 ml) jars. Processing!Important!!
Fill a boiling water canner with water, and place 8 pre-washed 250 ml
jars in it, and bring it up to boiling. Put the mason jar snap lids in
boiling water in a sauce pan, boil for a few minutes to soften the
rubber on the lids. Spoon the chile sauce into the jars, leaving about
1/4 inch head room, make sure no air bubbles remain in jar, wipe the jar
rim, and place the lid on jar. Turn the screw lid on hand tight, and
place jar in canner. When all the jars are filled, the same way, return
the water in the canner to a boil, cover canner, and process for at
least 15 minutes. Remove jars, and cool for at least one day, then next
day check seals. Lids should have all popped down, and any that didnt,
use these right away, keeping them in the fridge. If you have done all
this correctly, there should not be any no seal ones. Make sure that
there is enough water in the canner to cover the mason jars, and if
adding boiling water to the canner, add it down the side of the pot.
This is a terrific chile sauce, we have been doing it for years, and
still have four left from 1996, the last year we did it! Cheers, Doug
and Marie in BC